Expanding reflexivity inwards and outwards. Masculinities, war and science

HÉCTOR PEDRO MUNARETTO

Gandía

Congreso; BRIDGES 2022; 2022

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

In this anthropological exercise I intend to recover the relationship established between a male social sciences researcher and male Malvinas/Falklands war veterans through some ethnographic examples of the interaction I had with them during fieldwork. The qualitative data offered here derives from the ethnographic research I conduct in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires and in the northern province of Chaco, and shall be considered in the context of the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of that international conflict and of important advances regarding women’s rights, powered by the various feminist movements in Argentina. I propose to take a deeper look at the epistemological and cosmopolitical (Stengers, 2014) advantages and disadvantages of the new gender agendas in such masculinised spheres as that of the war veterans. The hypothesis of this communication suggests that research by men on men brings as many heuristic advantages as it risks biasing the subjects of study via hegemonic and stereotyped masculinities. To conclude, I propose this ambivalence as a case study which could help demonstrating the fundamental importance of incorporating the practice of ethnographic reflexivity into all areas of science, far beyond social anthropology, so words and intelligibility could be put into the tacit and (un)comfortable relationship among men in the context of science research.